May 16, 2016

Swedish Court sentences man to life-in-prison for role in Rwandan genocide

The New York Times reports a Swedish court convicted a 61-year-old man on Monday for taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and sentenced him to life in prison. The case was noteworthy for being part of a transnational effort to hold people accountable for crimes against humanity, no matter where those crimes occurred. The Stockholm District Court found that the man, Claver Berinkindi, a Rwandan who obtained Swedish citizenship in 2012, had participated in five massacres between April 18 and May 31, 1994. In the hills of Nyamure, he rallied people to participate in the killing of thousands of civilians. He was also involved in the deaths of hundreds of people who had sought refuge in a municipal building in the town of Muyira and in an adjacent adult education center. Trapped in the compound, hundreds of people were massacred.